EPA considers $200M fix for polluted American Cyanamid property

Amanda Brown/For the Star-LedgerWorkers repair the berm surrounding the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater on Dec. 9, 2011. The EPA is considering a fix for contaminants on the property, which is owned by Pfizer.

BRIDGEWATER — The federal Environmental Protection Agency is leaning toward a nearly $204 million fix for the polluted American Cyanamid property that involves changing the contaminants into a solid and trapping them under a cap.

A decision has not yet been made by the federal agency, but the option was one of eight announced today that were considered. The others ranged from no action to a solution that would have cost property owner Pfizer $1.8 billion total.

The EPA’s preferred option is similar to one promoted in December by the pharmaceutical giant. The differences between the two proposals were not immediately available, but Pfizer engineer Russ Downey said “we are pleased that it won’t be vastly different.”

The EPA said in the proposed plan that the preferred option consisted of "proven technologies that would be effective in controlling and reducing" the site's contamination. Under that plan, it would take 10 years for the soil to be cleaned up, and 30 years for the groundwater to be pollution-free.

Pfizer inherited the 435-acre property in 2009 as part of its purchase of Wyeth Holding Corporation, which owned the site at the time. Chemical pollution on the property, which borders Bound Brook, dates back to 1915.

Federal environmental officials will hold a public meeting on the clean-up plan on March 8 at the Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School in Bridgewater.

Walt Sodie, executive director for the environmental watchdog CRISIS, said the EPA’s preferred option was better than some alternatives, but there were still concerns about the waste and groundwater treatment.

“We will be taking a very close look at how these issues are addressed in the proposed plan, and I anticipate that we will ask for more extensive details on the measures proposed for dealing with them,” Sodie said.